A virtual mailbox service can be your best friend. They’re great for people who travel a lot or otherwise find it difficult to pick up the mail as often as they would like.
Quick Picks
If you’re in a hurry, take a look at our favorites here. Or you can scroll down for in-depth reviews of each service.
- Best For Freelancers: BusinessAnywhere
- Best Overall: Traveling Mailbox
- Best Budget: Anytime Mailbox
- Best for Digital Nomads: iPostal1
- Best for Small Business Owners: EarthClassMail
- Best for Package Forwarding: PostScanMail
What to Look for in a Virtual Mailbox Service
The way these services work may seem complex at first, but it’s simple.
- You set up forwarding from one of their physical addresses (most services offer several of these). This is a matter of completing an official form from the US Post Office.
- Then you tell everyone who sends you mail to send it to this new real street address, which the service will give you. Or you can use the USPS mail forwarding service, but read here on why you might not want to trust the post office with mail forwarding.
- You mail starts going to the digital mailbox service, and they scan the outside of each envelope for you to look at. Then you tell them with each piece whether you want it forwarded, want the internal pages scanned, or want it shredded.
- Yes, you can continue using your real address for important mail or anything you want and just use the virtual address to catch the junk mail.
Who Needs Virtual Mail?
Virtual mail is great for frequent travelers and digital nomads. You may be RVing around the country or jet setting around the globe. Or you may just spend a lot of nights away from home as part of your job.
Instead of dealing with the post office and vacation mail stops, or asking a neighbor to grab the mail for you, your service does all the work.
A virtual mailing address is great for those who can’t receive FedEx or UPS parcels where they live. You need a real physical street address for them. A virtual mail service can not only receive those packages but bundle up a bunch of them and then forward them to you as needed.
And these services also help those who can’t pick up their mail as often as they need to. For example, you may work late most evenings and live in a courtyard apartment where the mailboxes aren’t well-lit. A PO box might not be a better alternative. If you don’t feel safe grabbing your mail, this might be the option you’re looking for.
Or maybe you don’t have a very secure place to receive parcels, and you’re concerned about someone stealing or damaging them.
And then there’s the home-based small business owner, freelancer or solopreneur. Most of these companies cannot provide registered agent services, but they can give you a legitimate virtual business address to show to clients or the world at large. That way you get your business mail without exposing your home address.
What to Look For In Digital Mail Services
Your first step is to identify what you most need. Some services are better than others at certain things.
- Do you mainly need a service to forward your packages to where you’re traveling or staying?
- Is your main goal simply the privacy of having an address to give out that’s not your home?
- Do you need check depositing services?
- Is it important for your service to integrate with another service you use, like Dropbox or Google Drive?
- Do you need a physical address in a particular region?
Best Virtual Mailbox Services of 2023
- Affordability: Rates start at $15.00 per month (annual discounts are a good deal)
- Privacy and Security: Complies with HIPAA, secure internet portal, secure physical facilities to keep mail safe
- Package Forwarding: Yes, for fees
- Check Depositing: Yes, for additional fee
- Available Addresses: Over 50 Locations all within the US
- Integrations: Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Evernote and Bill.com.
- Mobile Apps: Android and iOS
- Customer Support: 7 days a week via Live Chat, Phone, and Email. Support is not outsourced or delegated to anyone else.
- Cloud Storage: Unlimited
- Faxes: Free sending and receiving
- Mail-A-Letter: Upload PDF's and Documents to your account to be mailed from anywhere in the world.
- Shredding: Mark pieces of mail you want them to shred
- BEST FOR: Privacy, Digital Nomads, less tech savvy customers who need quick, helpful support
Traveling Mailbox is the service I recommended to my mom, who isn't very computer savvy. Their top notch support helped her quickly every time she needed it.
This service will scan labels from mail and parcels you get and upload them. You can then choose whether you want them to (a) just shred it, (b) open it and scan the contents of paper mail or (b) forward the mail/parcel to you.
This is especially good if you move or travel a lot and don't ever want to have to update your address with anyone except Traveling Mailbox. They can even deposit checks for you, for an additional fee.
Each plan includes a certain number of recipients, a certain number of mail pieces they will receive each month, a certain number they will scan, etc. If you go over plan limits, there are extra fees, and if this happens often it would probably make sense to upgrade to a new plan.
They give you over 50 physical mailing addresses to choose from, all in the mainland US. There are several to choose from in California alone, making this a particularly good choice if you want a California address.
- Affordability: Rates as low as $5.99 per month
- Privacy and Security: Secure internet portal
- Package Forwarding: Yes, for fees
- Check Depositing: Yes, for additional fee
- Available Addresses: Over 1800 locations worldwide
- Integrations: None
- Mobile Apps: Android and iOS
- Customer Support: Monday - Friday - 6AM - Midnight PST
- Cloud Storage: Free Unlimited Online Storage
- Faxes: No
- Mail-A-Letter: No
- Shredding: Yes
- BEST FOR: Affordability
Anytime Mailbox is one of the most popular virtual mailbox providers, with mail scanning and mail and package forwarding. They have the most affordable plans on this list, starting at $5.99. Different locations have different pricing, and you can choose extra options if you think you'll have a lot of items you want them to open and scan, or forward to you.
You choose an address from a network of 1,702 they have worldwide, in the US, Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Oceania. Your physical mail will be sent to that address. They scan envelopes so you can look at them online in their secure portal, by phone or computer.You can pick and choose which pieces of mail you want them to open and scan, or shred, or deposit in the case of checks. You can also choose to have a piece of mail forwarded to you.
If you go over your plan limits, you can pay small fees for the extra pieces of mail or tasks. If this keeps happening, you may save money by upgrading your account.
- Affordability: Rates start at $9.99 per month
- Privacy and Security: Secure physical facilities to keep mail safe
- Package Forwarding: Yes, for shipping fee
- Check Depositing: Yes, for additional fees
- Available Addresses: Over 2,300 locations worldwide
- Integrations: No
- Mobile Apps: Android and iOS
- Customer Support: Mon-Fri from 9AM to 5PM ET by chat, phone or email
- Cloud Storage: 2 GB secure cloud storage
- Faxes: Available with some plans or with additional fees
- Mail-A-Letter: No
- Shredding: Mark pieces of mail you want them to shred
- BEST FOR: Freelancers/Remote Workers
iPostal1 mailbox plans are competitively priced, and even more affordable if you pay for an annual plan up front. Plans are based on how many pieces of mail you expect to receive.
All the plans allow 5 recipients for a personal household or for business, 4 recipients plus a business name. This should be enough for most people. If you need more, you can set up an additional mailbox.
This service offers over 900 physical addresses for you to choose. And unlike most services, this one allows you to come and pick up mail at one of their mailbox locations. Pick one near you if that's an option you'd like to have.
Check depositing by mail is available for a fee. You can also receive faxes via iPostal1.
- Affordability: Rates start at $20 per month for unlimited mail, unlimited scans
- Privacy and Security: Secure physical facilities and digital space to keep mail safe
- Package Forwarding: For the cost of postage
- Check Depositing: No
- Available Addresses: Physical addresses in WY, NM, and AZ
- Integrations: No
- Mobile Apps: Android and iOS
- Customer Support: Via Email
- Cloud Storage: Unlimited cloud storage
- Faxes: No
- Mail-A-Letter: No
- Shredding: Upon request
- BEST FOR: Freelancers/Remote Workers
One of the best things about BusinessAnywhere is how easy the signup process is, even if you're overseas, because they have a virtual notary right in the dashboard. All of these services require that you get a an official post office form notarized. BusinessAnywhere streamlines that process.
- Affordability: Rates start at $19.00 per month
- Privacy and Security: Complies with HIPAA, secure internet portal, secure physical facilities to keep mail safe
- Package Forwarding: Yes, for shipping fees + additional fees
- Check Depositing: With some plans, fees may apply
- Available Addresses: Over 80 locations all within the US
- Integrations: Bill.com, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Quickbooks, Xero and Earth Class API
- Mobile Apps: Android and iOS
- Customer Support: By ticket or email
- Cloud Storage: Unlimited
- Faxes: No
- Mail-A-Letter: No
- Shredding: Mark pieces of mail you want them to shred
- BEST FOR: Small businesses, especially fully remote ones
Earth Class Mail is still one of the best digital mail services for businesses, but they have changed their plans and price structure to be more competitive for households and individuals, too. If you've looked at them before and thought they were too expensive, take another look now.
Their service includes receiving your mail at their Beaverton, Oregon facility address (there are other addresses available on the more expensive individual and business plans). They have HIPAA certified technicians handling your mail, adding additional peace of mind if you choose to let them handle your medical mailings.
When you look at the scans of your envelops online, you tell Earth Class Mail what to do with each piece. You can instruct them to trash and recycle junk mail. They also provide check deposit services for an extra fee. Their portal allows you to download important documents to save, or forward to your attorney, accountant or colleague.
With each plan, you get a monthly limit of how many mail pieces they will receive each month, how many scans you will need, etc. You probably want to pick your plan based on the number of recipients who will be getting mail.
Start with the lowest plan that has enough recipients, and upgrade if you need to later.
- Affordability: Rates start at $15.00 per month
- Privacy and Security: Secure internet portal
- Package Forwarding: Yes, for shipping fees + additional fees
- Check Depositing: Coming soon
- Available Addresses: Over 400 locations all within the US
- Integrations: None
- Mobile Apps: Android and iOS
- Customer Support: Mon-Fri: 6am to 8pm PST, Sat-Sun: 7am to 3pm PST by phone or email
- Cloud Storage: Unlimited
- Faxes: No
- Mail-A-Letter: No
- Shredding: Coming soon - currently recycling only
- BEST FOR: Package forwarding
Post Scan Mail range from $15 to $30. They vary according to how many recipients you have, how much mail you get, and how many pieces you expect them to open and scan for you. Some extra features are available for small fees.
They will consolidate mail you need sent to you and send it in one big package. They can also handle your package forwarding at very competitive rates. And if you get junk mail, they'll recycle an unlimited amount of it on any plan.
You choose an address from over 400 available, mostly in the United States with a few outside it. You can access your mail online with your phone, tablet or computer.
They'll store your mail for 30 days, and you can pay a small fee to have them store it longer if you need. Local pickup by you is also an option if you pick an address close to you.